How To Use a Meat Grinder

You need not run the risk of grinding your hands or your brain as you try to use the meat grinder! It's really one thing to become a meat lover, but it's another to have the essentials of becoming a good meat mixer or meat stuffer. Cooking skills include the fine art of meat grinding, especially if you are more of a carnivore than a vegetarian cook.

To be a lean meat mixer or meat stuffer (pun intended!), you need to understand how to properly use meat equipment. You don't just put the slab of pork in immediately. You need to at least remove the excessive greasy fat on the entire slab of meat and slice it in manageable chunks before placing it in your grinder.

Hand operated or manual meat grinder - This is also popularly known as the hand crank meat grinder. The first thing you need to look for is a good surface, rich in friction and smooth. This sturdy backdrop will be for your safety. You must also remove the hard parts like tendons and cartilages so that you will not injure your hands in the grinding motion. Reduce friction by using frozen meat. And then once you are all ready and settled, use your stronger hand to turn the grinder in a clockwise or counterclockwise motion. Just make sure you prepare a container to serve as a receptacle for your ground meat. Kenwood offers a very attractive selection of hand operated meat grinders that you can check out.

Electric powered meat grinder -Walmart's Back to Basics Grinder is a very good example of a nice 1-hp electric powered meat grinder. You just need to plug it in and place in manageable amounts of meat in the container to produce ground meat. You just need to make sure that no excessive moisture remains on the grinder after use because it is electrically operated equipment.

Large or commercial level meat grinders - A heavy duty grinder is a wrestler of a meat machine. But you need not be a Gulliver to operate it. One thing to consider is that the grinder must pass industrial standards. You might need to conduct checks before you decide to do a massive meat grinding operation on the commercial meat grinder. As much as possible, protect yourself by maintaining minimal contact when the grinder is in motion. You might also need to check out the manual of large meat grinders to ensure that you are doing it safely and correctly.

Troubleshooting your meat grinder - You might be encountering some problems with your meat grinder. Proper troubleshooting includes determining if it is an electric or mechanical problem. For hand grinders, it is usually often the latter and you might need to pull out your warranty card to have it serviced. If the problem is more of an electric type, you may need a technician to help sort it out, or just use electric tape for simple loose wiring.

Care and maintenance for your meat grinder - Meat is quite a handful to deal with - especially in cleaning. It is still best to stick to the adage of cleaning as you go to prevent old meat from sticking to your grinder and affecting the quality of your future grinding operations. You can also set a fixed schedule for cleaning your meat grinder to keep it in top condition.